1946 Berlin state election

The election to the Greater Berlin City Council on October 20, 1946 was the only overall Berlin election in the period between the end of the Second World War and the reunification of Germany.

The clear winner of the election was the SPD under Otto Ostrowski, which with 48.7% and 63 of 130 seats fell just three seats short of holding an absolute majority. The CDU finished in second place under Ferdinand Friedensburg with a meager 22.2% of votes and 29 seats. The SED suffered a significant defeat, winning just 19.8% of the vote and 26 mandates. The remaining 9.3% of the votes went to the Free Democratic Party which received 12 mandates.

Voter turnout was 92.3%. The result was a clear rejection of the Socialist Unity Party, which was the party favored by the Soviet occupying forces, and of the CDU, which came to dominate politics in West Germany.

The city council chose Ernst Reuter as mayor and formed a black-red-yellow coalition of the SPD, CDU and FDP. The pro-western coalition conflicted with the occupying Soviet forces considerably and less than two years later in 1948 the opposition Socialist Unity Party led riots which led to the division of Berlin and the ending of the work of the City Council for the whole of Berlin.

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